1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of exercise devices which provide an isometric exercise through a fixed resistance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The following 10 patents and published patent applications are the closest prior art references which are related to the present invention.
1. U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,480 issued to Edmond R. Dudley on Dec. 10, 1985 for “Portable Exercise Device” (hereafter the “Dudley patent”);
2. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 343,881 issued to Andy S. Wilson on Feb. 1, 1994 for “Isometric Exerciser” (hereafter the “Wilson Design patent”);
3. U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,149 issued to Fred T. Smith et al. on Jan. 23, 1996 for “Friction Resistance Exercise Device” (hereafter the “Smith patent”);
4. U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,251 issued to Sherman U. Robles, Jr. on Feb. 6, 1996 for “Exercise Device” (hereafter the “Robles patent”);
5. U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,652 issued to Renate Perleberg-Kölbel on Sep. 26, 2000 for “Levered Resilient Strength Training Apparatus” (hereafter the “Perleberg-Kölbel patent”);
6. U.S. Pat. No. 6,149,559 issued to Teri R. Mackey on Nov. 21, 2000 for “Variable Resistance Exercise Device” (hereafter the “Mackey Patent”);
7. U.S. Pat. No. 6,238,324 issued to Gordan A. MacMillan on May 29, 2001 for “Elastic Exerciser System” (hereafter the “MacMillan Patent”);
8. United States Published Patent Application No. 2002/0086779 issued to William T. Wilkinson on Jul. 4, 2002 for “Resistance Devices, Total-Body Exercise Machines Outfitted Therewith, And Exercise Methods Using Such Devices And Machines” (hereafter the “Wilkinson Published Patent Application”);
9. United States Published Patent Application No. 2003/0134728 issued to Shen Yi Wu on Jul. 17, 2003 for “Exercise Machine” (hereafter the “Wu Published Patent Application”);
10. United States Published Patent Application No. 2005/0233875 issued to Raymond Clarke et al. on Oct. 20, 2005 for “Office Gym Exercise Kit” (hereafter the “Clarke Published Patent Application”).
The Dudley patent is a portable exercise device. Specifically, there is a take up reel 14 which has a spring mechanism which causes it to unrewind in the counterclockwise direction and there is a cord 18 which is wound on the reel and extends through a pair of wedges 22 and 23 and out of the wedges so that the cord can be attached to an exercise mechanism such as a bar 36 or a leg strap 37. The resistance is changed by having a frictional engagement between the two wedges 22 and 23 adjusted so that they can more tightly compress the cord to cause the resistance to be greater.
The Wilson patent is described as an isometric exerciser but it is a design patent. There appears to be some resistance mechanism within the housing from which two straps extend to special hand grips.
The Smith patent discloses a concept of having an adjustable exercise apparatus wherein the amount of resistance is varied by rotating a dial 54 which has an annular opening 55. Teeth 56 are disposed around the annular opening 55. The teeth mesh with teeth on the outer periphery of a collar 60. The collar 60 is provided with a threaded opening 62 which meshes with the threaded periphery 64 of the shaft 66. The shaft 66 extends through an opening in the bearing 44 to the opposite surface of the casing 12. The shaft 66 has a head 70 at its opposite end with the head resting against the flange 72 on the bearing. The Patent further discloses “When an individual desires to use the exercise apparatus 10, such individual disposes the loop 28 around the post 29 (FIG. 1) and disposes his or her hand or foot in the loop 36 in the cable 32. The individual then pulls the cable 32 outwardly from the casing. This causes the fan blades 39 to rotate and the helical spring 38 to become constrained. The one-way clutch 42 rotates with the fan blades 39 and drives the disc 46 against the friction force imposed by the bearing liners 52. The force imposed by the bearing liners 52 against the disc 46 remains substantially constant throughout the rotation of the disc. When the cable 32 is released, the constraint of the spring 38 produces a rotation of the one-way clutch 42 and the fan blades 39 and the sleeve 34 in a direction to release the constraint on the spring. However, the clutch 42 is decoupled from the bearing 44 so that the bearing and the disc 46 do not rotate. The cable 32 becomes wound uniformly on the periphery of the sleeve 34 as the sleeve rotates, as indicated schematically in FIG. 8. Successive loops are then provided in a successive layer in the space between successive pairs of the first loops”. “The magnitude of the friction force imposed by the bearing liners 52 against the disc 46 during the rotation of the disc may be adjusted by rotating the dial 54 (FIGS. 3, 4 and 7). This rotation causes the shaft 66 to rotate so as to vary the force imposed by the head 70 on the shaft against the flange 72 on the bearing 44. Since the bearing 44 is coupled to the disc 46, the force exerted by the disc against the bearing liners 52 is correspondingly varied.” Therefore, this device shows a means for varying the resistance.
The Robles patent is an exercise device for the foot and discloses a harness 12 placed about a foot and a second harness 18 placed about the thigh so that the lower calf muscles can be exercised. The adjustment mechanism to adjust the tension is illustrated in FIG. 4. The tension mechanism consists of a spring 58 which is retained between end spring plate 62 and movable plate 64 which is attached to an adjustable rotating rod 72 which can be rotated by a handle. As the rod is rotated in one direction, the plate causes the spring to compress greater and as the rod is rotated in the other direction, the plate 64 moves away from plate 62 to extend the spring to a larger amount of spring force to increase the compression force of the spring. Therefore, this patent discloses the concept of having the spring mechanism adjusted by an adjusting mechanism such as a rotating rod that increases the length or the length of the spring to increase or decrease the compression force of the spring.
The Perleberg-Kölbel patent embodies the concept of having three springs within bores in the housing and a lever mechanism which can move within a slot 15 within the housing so that the spring force can be varied as the pulling mechanism on the housing is causing a resistance force for exercise. Specifically, as disclosed in the patent, “turning now in detail to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows an upper portion 2 of the housing 2a of the apparatus 1. This has a maximum force indicator element 3 which is contacted by outermost end 4c bent through approximately 90°, of a lever 4, shown in FIG. 2. End 4c is at the power arm end 4e which is displaced when a pulling force is exerted around the power arm end 4e of the one-armed lever. The pulling or holding loop 6 is retained in a groove 8 in the lower portion 9 of the housing by means of a cross member 7. A longitudinal central plane divides the housing into portions 2 and 9. FIG. 2 and FIG. 4 show the lever 4 as being a rod profile of one continuous arm with narrow cross section and being bent into U-shape with a small radius of curvature. Thus, the arms 4a and 4b bear against one another and are jointly engaged by the pulling loop 5. As a result, although the rod profile used has a narrow cross section, the force of resistance of the lever is high enough for the transmission of the exerted pulling forces onto the helical compression springs 10, 11 and 12. This occurs at the working arm end 4d of the lever. The springs are disposed in bores 13 of a block-shaped spring housing 14 and can be loaded in the downward compression direction by the lever 4. This downward direction is the same as that shown by the arrow of force K. The lever bears via its work arm 4d against the free ends 10a, 11a, 12a of the helical springs extending out of the bores 13. A slot-shaped grove 15 of the spring housing acts as a space for the guidance and movement of the lever when a force K is exerted onto the power arm end 4e of the lever.”
The Mackey patent is a variable resistance exercise device which basically has a mechanism by which the string which is attached to a flexible reel can be incorporated into a strap that is worn around the waist or a leg as shown in the figures so that the resistance can be pulled with the leg or the arm with the mechanism attached to a wall as shown in FIG. 6. With respect to the variable resistance mechanism of this invention, referring to FIG. 8, a spring wheel 14 causes cable 4 to retract onto spool 16 and 18. A flexible spring plate 28 is pushed on by the threaded knob 20 so that the further the knob is turned clockwise, the more resistance is put on the top surface 26 of spool 16 and 18 thereby making it harder for the user to pull on. Therefore, the resistance mechanism in this case is varied by having the plate 28 compress further against the spring assembly to therefore cause the spring to be more compressed and therefore, cause the resistance to increase.
The MacMillan patent is an elastic exerciser system, which consists of a multiplicity of elastic loads such as 10, 11, 12 and 13 shown in FIG. 2 which can be coupled together and each having a ring extending therefrom to which handles 25 and 27 can be attached so that the loads can be used to pull on either by having a pair of hands extending through the rings or a pair of feet or ankles extending through the rings to create a tension.
The Wilkinson Published Patent Application discloses a retraction wheel mechanism as shown in FIGS. 2a and 2b attached to the cord 217 which is in turn attached to the mechanism 219 which can be wrapped around an arm or a leg. The retraction mechanism on the cable 217 is illustrated in FIG. 2a consists of a spring 206 which causes the reel to automatically rewind back onto the spool. Other resistance in addition to the spring is such as caliper arms 211 and 212 which increase the resistance.
The Wu Published Patent Application is also a portable exercise machine. It contains a cable or rope assembly which is rewound into the housing by a spring mechanism 23. In this case, it is a spiral spring that causes the rope to rewind back into the casing after it is extended out by a pulling action by an arm or a leg pulling on the handle assembly 611. In this case for purposes of the retraction mechanism on one side of the wheel 20, there is a spiral spring 23 which is installed with a unidirectional bearing 24. The unidirectional bearing 24 is installed with a friction means. In this embodiment, the friction means is a friction wheel 30. An outer periphery of the friction wheel 30 is enclosed by a friction strip 31. The contact between the friction strip 31 and the friction wheel 30 is controlled by an adjust device 40. On this embodiment, the adjust device 40 if fixed to the body 10 by a fixing frame 41. The fixing frame 41 is an approximate U shaped plate. The fixing frame 41 has a penetrated hole through hole 411. An approximate rectangular adjust block 42 is installed in the fixing frame 41. The adjust block 42 has a threaded hole 421. The through hole 411 of the fixing frame 41 is passed through by a stud 43. The stud 43 is received in the long groove 105 of the body 10. One end of the stud 43 is installed with a button 431. Another end of the stud 43 has a threaded section 432. The threaded section 432 is screwed to a screw hole 421 fo the fixing frame 41. One end of the friction strip 31 is firmly secured to the adjust block 42. By rotating the button 431 to rotate the stud 43, the adjust block 42 may move upwards or downwards in the fixing frame 41 so as not to rotate. Therefore, the friction force between the friction strip 31 and the friction wheel 30 is adjusted.
Finally, the Clarke Published Patent Application is a portable exercise gym. Within the device, a resistance means consists of a flexible fabric with a generally rectangular portion as shown in FIG. 20 with a multiplicity of apertures 30. It consists of a bunch of retainers that extend through the flexible fabric that creates the resistance.
There is a significant need for an improved isometric exercise device which is simple, portable and provides features not found in prior art exercise devices which provide an isometric exercise.